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Unsure about what to do with economics

Hiya everyone, I'm pretty new here, so hello.
I am looking to do economics after a gap year. I have applied to Trinity college, Dublin for their BESS course (planning to specialise in economics after 2 years), and am pretty confident of being able to get in (I find out in August, after I get my exam results).

I am currently studying Economics, Business studies, History and Government and politics. I am also doing an AS in Critical thinking. I am currently looking at achieving an A in Economics, Business studies and History. For the politics I'm probably looking at a B. I'm not sure about the critical thinking yet. I will be doing a Maths A level course during my gap year, so I will have the maths. I know it will be a load of work, but I'm prepared to put it in.

My GCSEs were not fantastic:
AA in English
B in Maths
C in French
BB in Science
C in Latin
B in History
A in Geography
D in Design technology (graphics)
EE in Applied ICT
I went to Chesterton community college. It's a state school, and I don't really know whether its good or not. Heres the BBC site with the averages compared to it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/06/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/873_4029.stm

I think I'm a good student, who works hard and contributes well in lessons. I'm pretty sure that my recommendations would be excellent. I am in the Economics and Business society in my college, and participate in a mentoring scheme for the lower sixth. Outside of college I play for the local Gaelic football team.

Basically, I am wondering whether I would be able to get into any universities in Britain that would be better than Trinity in Dublin. Would Oxbridge and LSE be out of my league for economics?

Thanks for any help, sorry for the mini essay.

Reply 1

Wiseguy.

I'll probably rule you out the top 6 uni's for economics. (Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Warwick, Bristol) and probably also Durham, but if you get predicted 3As Notts will give you a place.

Reply 2

Getoverture

I don't think your chances of getting into Oxbridge or LSE are too good. LSE is especially picky about GCSE grades, wanting their candidates to have at lest around 7/8 A*S. The same goes for Oxbridge, though it's not unheard of for peeople to achieve a place with not so good GCSE grades, I'm laomost certain you'd have to get straight As at AS and A-level.

Reply 3

Jacky boy

Thanks for the replies, and for being honest. I don't suppose anyone would happen to know how Trinity in Dublin compares to others in the UK for economics? I also heard that GCSEs were less important once you have recieved your A level grades (I would have done when I'm applying, sorry if I wasn't clear), and also if you didn't come from a private school. I'm probably wrong though.
Thanks again for the replies!

Reply 4

unknown demon

You could try out for unis below the top 6 aka notts, bristol, york etc. You may have a shot, good your doing maths and taking an initiative on that front, friends at my uni doin economics with no math a level are struggling

Reply 5

lorrybeep

Sounds like you are aiming to get at least AAAB? Those are decent grades. Apply a few good ones, a few medicore ones, a few backups. You never know until you try. Don't rule them out just cause everyone says you don't stand a chance.

Reply 6

Jacky boy

Thanks for all the advice. Definitely got me thinking. I don't suppose anyone knows how Trinity College Dublin compares to other universities in the UK? I've seen on another post that it ranks about the level of UCL for economics, is this true?
Thanks again for all your help.

Reply 7

a2kz

I wouldn't say Trinity ranks in the league of UCL for economics, I think it is comparable to UCL in terms of overall international reputation/ prestige though. The economics department is quite minor there (though the business school is meant to be pretty good), but it is excellent for courses such as politics (part of BESS) where I've read it is 3rd internationally.

Tbh, I really would be astonished if you were accepted to UCL, LSE etc. I hope not to sound arrogant, but I had much better grades than you (4a*6a,b at gcse and 4A, Dist, Merit at a-level) and probably stronger ECs but was rejected by them. I asked UCL specifically why they rejected me and they said it was because of my GCSE grades. I also went to a slightly above average state school similar to yours. I would say the lack of a maths A-level grade and a B at GCSE would also make any prestigious unis wary about accepting you for straight eco. I have a friend who was doing maths AS level in y13 but had a B at GCSE who was rejected by York and Notts despite having sufficent predicted grades, he ended up going to Leeds though.

If you manage to get AAAB at A-level, which equalises to 495-505, you should be accepted for BESS (which last year went to lottery at 480 I think). In which case, I would strongly urge to to accept it if prestige is what your after. If you do well and get a 2.i or first, you should have a good chance at LSE/ UCL etc. for post-grad if you wanted to go there still.

Reply 8

Jacky boy

Thanks very much for all the help. Valuable advice, much better than the stuff my schools career office was doling out!
I reckon I'm probably going to go for Trinity. I was thinking though that the equalisation only came in for applications next year (I've probably got the wrong end of the stick though), and so because I've applied this year (hearing whether I've got in August 2007) I thought it didn't apply to me?
Thanks again for all the help, much appreciated. Great forums.

Reply 9

a2kz

The equalisation system has always existed in some form. It used to be the case that for every 'A' grade you would get 150 points, meaning if you got 4As you would have 600 points which is the maximum you can get on the Irish leaving certificate. A little unfair given around 6% of A-level candidates get 4As+ and only ~0.5% of Irish leavers get 600/600. Moreover, it meant for course such as medicine it provided an easy route for UK students who had been rejected by all their UK unis to get into the subject. Since you need around 580-590 points so if you had 4As you were guaranteed a place, at the expense of an Irish student who may be more able.

For this year they are banding the grades, so if you get 4As you get put into the 510-600 band. This means if there are 500 applicants with 510+ points or AAAA for 100 Medicine places and 400 are Irish and 100 UK, rather than take the 100 English students, they would distribute the places proportionally so that there were 80 for Irish students and 20 for UK students. They would then pick the top 80 Irish students, and then (being Irish) pick the luckiest 20 UK students i.e. ones chosen by lottery, rather than looking at other aspects of their application. You should be okay for BESS though, since it is only usually Medicine, Dentistry and Law that get to the stage of requiring over 510.

One other advantage (often overlooked) of going to Trinity is that Ireland don't have top-up fees, you only pay a registration fee of around 800 euros (god bless the EU). If your applying for finance non-income assessed, you also qualify for the International maintenance loan which is £5,000-odd, so essentially you are getting into £5,000-odd of debt rather than £6,000-odd and more of it is going in your pocket.

Anyway that was my 2 cents, mostly irrelevant to economics. Best of luck to you.